Category Archives: Vocabulary

How Big is My Vocabulary?

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test-your-vocab  There is a website called testyourvocab.com that helps give you an estimate of how many English words you know.  This is not exact, and mostly for fun.  But if you try it now, and then try it again after you have practiced a lot of English, you should see that your vocabulary has improved.

Suggestions for taking the test:

  • This is easier to use on a tablet or computer (rather than your phone)
  • Don’t check a word unless you really know it well.  If you just think it sounds familiar, don’t check it.
  • At the end, it will give you the number of words calculated for your vocabulary.  Save this number, and then compare it with the number you get when you take the test again.

Try to learn a new English word every day, and you’ll be pleased with how your vocabulary grows!

365 Short Stories

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The website eslyes has a page with 365 very short stories.  Each one takes only a few minutes to read.  You can also listen to each story (in normal or slower speed).  After you read and listen to the story, there are several exercises you can try.

Here’s some more detail:

  • To listen in slow speed you need to press the speaker button to the right of the title.  
  • The number after each title in the list is the reading difficulty.  A higher number means it’s more difficult to read
  • Exercises include
    • Vocabulary
    • Yes/No questions about the story
    • Crossword puzzle
    • Dictation of some sentences in the story
    • Fill in the blank (Cloze)

The Top 100 English Words

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Here is a list of the 100 most frequently used English words.  About half of everything you read in English will be these 100 words!  Do you know all of them?  If you don’t you can learn about them with the Learners Dictionary.  top-100-words

If you would like more, here is a list of the 1000 most frequently used words:

One New Word Every Day

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learnersdictionary  A good way to learn more English words is to study one new word every day.  Here is a good website – learnersdictionary.com – that teaches you a new word or common expression every day. Start Today!
home-screenTo make it easier to use on your phone or tablet, put a website shortcut button on your home screen that will go right to the Word of the Day.  Here’s how to do that for Apple and Android.